EVERETT — A Snohomish County man filed a complaint Monday in the United States District Court in Seattle against gun manufacturer SIG SAUER, alleging its P320 handgun is defective, leading to a “slew of unintended discharges” across the country.
The complaint alleges the pistol is cocked, or ready to fire, the moment a round is chambered, and with one of the lightest and shortest trigger pulls of any similar pistol on the market, the practical effect is allegedly “akin to the consumer taking a loaded revolver, pulling the hammer back, and then walking around with that cocked pistol in the holster — all without any external safety features.”
In November 2021, the plaintiff bought his P320 in Bothell for approximately $1,093.82, court documents said. Before purchasing, he reviewed the company’s website and did not find any information about the alleged defect.
The plaintiff filed the potential class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and the proposed class of individuals who purchased the P320 without an external thumb safety in Washington from Nov. 17, 2021, to now, court documents said. The complaint does not say the plaintiff’s P320 has fired unintentionally.
According to court documents, the P320 does not include external safety features routinely used for other pistols, such as a manual safety, trigger safety, or grip safety. Since all of the P320s have the same “fire control unit,” which is home to a majority of the handgun’s functional parts, the versions that vary in size and optional add-ons have the same safety characteristics.
The P320 is based on SIG SAUER’s P250 handgun, which the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives removed from consideration in 2010 due to reliability and safety concerns, court documents said. The complaint alleges that the company was trying to reuse the leftover parts of the P250 and that the marketing department decided to remove the thumb safety and trigger safety from the original P320 design.
SIG SAUER did not respond to The Herald’s request for comment Friday.
In response to videos and several news reports of the gun allegedly discharging inadvertently, the complaint said SIG SAUER dismisses them as anti-gun, “perhaps fraudulent” and compares them to “videos of Bigfoot.”
The complaint alleges SIG SAUER has known of the defect since at least 2017 but has not warned customers or modified the pistol’s design. During a contract process to supply the P320 as the military’s next pistol, the company reported an evaluation of the pistol’s safety hazards to the U.S. Army in February 2017. According to court documents, the risk assessment said the pistol has “a ‘high’ risk for having an accidental discharge that could kill a person unintentionally.”
The evaluation identified safety measures, like a manual thumb safety, that would decrease the chance of an unintentional discharge, court documents said.
According to court filings, there are several lawsuits across the country alleging inadvertent discharge, including many from law enforcement agents.
Multiple law enforcement agencies from around the country have removed the P320 as a duty weapon, including a ban in all Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission-owned or contracted training facilities, court documents said.
The complaint requests a court judgment awarding monetary relief, and SIG SAUER adequately discloses or repairs the defect.
Jenna Millikan: 425-339-3035; jenna.millikan@heraldnet.com; X: @JennaMillikan
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